The subject of this patent application relates generally to food preparation utensils, and more particularly to tongs configured for removing dough from the inner portion of a bagel.
Applicants hereby incorporate herein by reference any and all patents and published patent applications cited or referred to in this application.
By way of background, it is often desirable to remove the soft, doughy interior portion from a bread product such as a bagel so as to reduce the attendant calories and carbohydrates while preserving what many consider the more delicious outer crust, which can still be eaten and can serve as a support or carrier for other nourishing food items. Over the years many implements have been proposed for removal of the interior dough of a bread-type product. In the case of bagels, specifically, the typically round, toroidal shape presents challenges for dough removal, even when the bagel is sliced or bisected transversely so as to expose the interior dough of what is then a half-toroid-shaped bagel half. Related considerations are to remove the dough in an effective and sanitary manner without damaging the bagel crust or risking injury to the operator. Ideally, such a bagel dough removal device would be relatively simple and inexpensive. The following are representative examples of prior art devices for bagel scooping, coring or the like, each of which having shortcomings addressed by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,419 to Sonkin is directed to an apparatus and method for treating baked goods, such as bagels. An outer ring including downwardly projecting pins is secured to the cut surface of a previously sliced bagel half. A cutting disc having an upwardly projecting handle and downwardly projecting cutting blades is rotatable within the outer ring, which outer ring serves as a guide and as a bearing. By turning the cutting disc while maintaining the bagel and the outer ring stationary, a circular trough will be cut in the dough of the bagel half by the cutting blades. In an automatic version of the apparatus, a flat, upwardly projecting screw is mounted in a base plate and a bagel half is secured by base plate mounted pins about the flat screw. A cutting disc is provided with a slot to receive the flat screw in a manner to automatically rotate the cutting disc relative to the bagel when the cutting disc is axially moved toward the base plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,193 to Valenti is directed to a scooper for a circular piece of bread-like material including a holder having a substantially circular base, a wall extending vertically upwardly from the perimeter of said base, and a gripper mounted on said base; the holder is adapted to receive the material, thereby preventing it from rotating. A rotor having a substantially circular bottom with a periphery fitting within the base and adapted for rotation with respect thereto is provided. A cutter having a blade is located on the bottom and extends therebelow, so that said blade is at the leading edge of said cutter as the rotor turns. The blade is arcuate, whereby rotation of said rotor causes the blade to cut into the piece and remove a portion thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,998 to Schwartz is directed to a coring apparatus for coring a substantially annular food item including a base member, a post member extending from the base member, the post member including a drive shaft guide structure, a drive shaft having a longitudinal axis and being rotatably fitted through the guide structure, the drive shaft having shaft external threads, a mechanism for engaging the shaft external threads, so that rotating the drive shaft relative to the post member causes the drive shaft to advance along the longitudinal axis relative to the post member, a food item cutting element mounted on the drive shaft including arched blades having blade cutting edges radially spaced from the drive shaft longitudinal axis for cutting along a circular path, and a food item holding structure connected to the mounting base and located within the longitudinal axis of the drive shaft and adjacent to the cutting element for securing the food item against rotation relative to the post member so that the cutting element is advanced toward the holding structure and into contact with the food item by rotating the drive shaft in one direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,401 to Gering is directed to a bagel dough extractor wherein an annular base carries a moveable cam member. Downwardly extending circumferentially arranged arcuate blades are mounted along the outer edge of the base to form a circle. Downwardly extending circumferentially arranged arcuate blades are pivotally mounted along the inner edge of the base to form a circle within the circle of fixed blades. Springs are interposed between radially aligned pairs of blades. The apparatus is positioned over the bagel such that the blades enter the interior of the bagel. The cam member cooperates with the moveable blades to move each blade in a substantially radial direction, against the intervening spring. The blades move from a position spaced from the aligned fixed blade to a position proximate to the aligned blade, as the cam member is moved, causing the dough to be pinched between the aligned blades. The dough is extracted as the apparatus is removed from the bagel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,991 to Tracy is directed to a device for removing dough from a piece of baked goods such as a bagel including a handle and a blade having a cutting edge secured to the handle. The blade is contoured to define an open region between the blade and the handle so that dough removed from the piece of baked goods can pass through the open region between the blade and the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,163 to Teich is directed to a bagel scoop configured to remove excess dough from a piece of baked goods, such as a bagel. The bagel scoop includes a handle, and a concave, preferably shallow elliptical spoon-shaped closed combined blade and scoop structure, having a downward curvature, to enable scooping and removal of dough. The outer distal end of the combined blade and scoop structure is preferably serrated, to allow for scraping and scooping of the bagel core dough at a leading edge of the blade. The combined blade and scoop structure is attached to a stem, which, in turn, is attached to the handle. A small auxiliary scraper is provided at an opposite end, for fine scraping and removing of excess dough residue not taken by the shallow elliptical spoon-shaped closed combined blade and scoop structure.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20150052760 to Keschner is directed to a device for removing material from exposed areas of a food item, such as a bagel, and comprises an elongated handle coupled to one end of a stem portion, the other end of the stem portion being coupled to a member having an array of three prongs extending therefrom. Each prong comprises an elongated member having rounded edges, the total width of the prong array being slightly less than the width of a typical sliced bagel thus preventing the circumference of the bagel from being cut during the scooping process.
As will be appreciated, the Sonkin (1990), Valenti (1991), and Schwartz (1996) devices are thus generally directed to a base or guide component that is to be selectively secured relative to a bagel half and a rotating component that is selectively positioned relative to the base or guide component. The rotating component is then formed with one or more blades configured to enter and engage the exposed interior dough of the bagel half when the rotating component is mated with the base or guide component, the rotating component being further formed with a handle or other mechanism for grasping or otherwise causing the rotating component to rotate axially relative to the base or guide and thus the bagel half secured thereon so as to cause the one or more blades to cut or separate the dough from the half bagel crust. Each such device is relatively complex and ineffective in use as well as being relatively costly due to the number and kinds of parts included in the assemblies.
The Gering (1998) “bagel dough extractor” device was proposed as an alleged improvement over the Sonkin, Valenti, and Schwartz devices (U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,401 at col. 1, line 19-col. 2, line 7) but suffers from its own shortcomings as also being relatively complex and ineffective in use as well as being relatively costly due to the number and kinds of parts included. Indeed, the Gering device appears to have more components and be more complex than the other proposed rotary devices of which Gering was critical. Moreover, the Gering device, as best illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 of the '401 patent, is configured in such a way as to leave quite a large portion of the dough within the bagel crust, rendering it less effective in use. Relatedly, the required operation of simultaneously keeping the device pushed down into the bagel half and preventing movement thereof, though not pushing the device too far down so as to cut through or damage the bagel crust, while pulling up on the handle 20 to actuate the ring of interior pivoted blades 26 so as to cut and pinch the bagel dough is thought to be cumbersome and difficult. As such, an improved and more simple and effective means for removal of the interior dough of a bagel or other such bread product was still needed.
Tracy (1999), Teich (2008), and Keschner (2015) then proposed relatively more simplified hand-held bagel dough removal utensils—scrapers and scoopers—each of which suffering from further deficiencies in construction and use even if providing some benefit in terms of being less complex or expensive relative to the above-noted prior art devices. First, the Tracy device comprises essentially a handle or body portion 15 with a somewhat downwardly projecting blade 14 configured to cut through or shave off excess bagel dough as by having an opening through which the separated dough can pass as the device is pulled through the bagel half, as best illustrated in FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,991. Teich was critical of this aspect of the Tracy device, stating that disadvantageously “Tracy is not capable of scooping and removing cut dough [and so] requires the additional step of manually removing the pieces of cut dough from the bagel, which defeats the purpose of providing a tool for cutting excess dough from the interior of a sliced bread product, such as a bagel” (U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,163 at col. 2, line 58-col. 3, line 4). Teich then proposed “a hand held bagel scooper for both scooping and removing excess dough from the inside of a bread product, such as a sliced bagel” ('163 at col. 4, lines 3-6), in the form of spoon-like device 1 having a particularly curved handle 2 and head or scoop structure 3 expressly having no point of inflection or change in curvature from concave to convex, thought to make the scoop device more effective and comfortable in use. However, while both scooping and removal of bagel dough are asserted as the improved functionality of the Teich device, it will be appreciated that with a single head or operative surface of whatever configuration, such removal is limited, particularly in view of the shape and relative shallowness of the Teich head or scoop structure 3 as best seen in FIG. 2 of the '163 patent. Moreover, while Teich also is concerned with the sanitary removal of dough and thus not requiring use of the fingers ('163 at col. 1, lines 23-26), as best appreciated from FIG. 3 of the '163 patent, it is most likely that in operation the thumb of the user will disadvantageously be used to trap the cut dough against the head or scoop structure 3 of the device in order to facilitate removal. Most recently, then, Keschner was expressly critical of the Teich device as creating a safety hazard due to the serrated teeth on the scoop and as generally being ineffectively configured (U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 20150052760 at paras. 0005 and 0006), instead proposing a scooper device 10 having a handle 12 with a prong member 16 at its working end having a somewhat downwardly-projecting array of prongs 20, 22, 24 terminating in rounded scooper edges 26, 28, 30 thought to be “safer and more efficient than prior art bagel scoopers” ('760 at paras. 0007 and 0013). However, while having rounded rather than serrated edges, the effectiveness of which is questioned for cutting through and tearing away bagel dough from the crust, like Teich, Keschner proposed effectively a single-sided scoop, here having three separate scooping surfaces in effectively the same plane, as best seen in FIG. 1 of the '760 publication, thus actually creating a relatively smaller surface for purpose of trapping and removing dough and again potentially requiring the use of an operator's finger or thumb to pin the dough against the scooping surfaces or prong member 16 for removal. Accordingly, there remains a need for an improved and more simple and effective means for removal of the interior dough of a bagel or other such bread product.
Aspects of the present invention fulfill these needs and provide further related advantages as described in the following summary.